Chicken 65

Hello my foody peeps, hope you'll are doing good and enjoying spring and summer in your respective regions. Recently, I visited my home town Kolkata, India but before the summer would start showing it's temperament we returned to Boston, though it is spring here and the temperature is in single digit yet. 

Anyway, I have enjoyed lot of good Bengali food during my vacation and satisfied my craving for the Kolkata style street food but what to do YEH DIL MAANGE MORE!!!!! 

After getting over the jet lag, unpacking things and other chores finally I decided to work on  my blog which had gained a back seat in my life :( 

This time I decided to make Chicken 65: A popular hot, spicy and delicious South Indian Snack. There are numerous ways in which this scrumptious dish can be made; I tried few of them and finally settled on this recipe and trust me you don't need any other recipe after this.  

The origin of this dish is still unknown; there are number of theories associated with this recipe but who cares when you're a food enthusiast what matters for you the dish should satisfy your craving.

So, let's begin with the recipe:

Chilli Fritters/ Rajasthani Mirchi Vada

Last Sunday when I went for my weekly grocery shopping I stumbled upon a basket full of Peppers. These were the big chillies which are usually used to make chilli pickles here in India. I couldn't resist myself buying those beauties.

When I bought those I made up my mind that I'll make chilli pickle out of those peppers, as a result I bought all the ingredients required to make the pickle but all of a sudden my husband requested me to make Fritters with them. So, with all the confusion and my mind dwelling between Fritters and Pickle those peppers were lying in my vegetable basket for a week.

Finally the confusion ended and the battle has been won by Fritters. Finally yesterday I decided to make these fritters in our Tea Time Snacks with a tangy tomato and cilantro chutney.

These fritters are very common in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The chillies are stuffed with spicy potato filling which is seasoned with few spices. Usually these chillies are less hotter than the usual ones which are used for cooking but if you want then you can remove the seeds from them and then fill the stuffing inside.

So, without wasting any time let's check out the recipe and serve it to your family at the tea table. Here's the recipe:

Macher Chop (Fish Croquettes)..............From the streets of Kolkata

Bengalis and Fish are inseparable. There's a very renowned saying in Bengali "Mache Baate Bangali" which means Fish and Rice make a Bengali. Being in India this year we can enjoy so many different varieties of fishes. Although we used to get some of the popular varieties in Portland(USA) too but they would be frozen :(

Monsoons are in full swing in India now. So, our tea time demands for some snacks specially some "Tele Bhaja" (deep fried snacks). If you are in Kolkata then you're in the hub of street foods. Every evening you can find various stalls at every nooks and corners of the streets. You can easily devour them standing at the stalls but making them at home gives you an immense pleasure and what more they come out hygenic too.

"Chop" is nothing else but a Cutlet or Croquette. It  is a small, cylindrical or round shaped, stuffed with minced meat and mashed potatoes or mixed vegetables. It is then dipped into corn flour batter, rolled in breadcrumbs and then deep fried. "Macher Chop" or "Fish Croquette" is a very common snack in our home. We both love them with finely sliced onions, cucumbers, tomatoes and ketchup. These croquettes can be prepared using many kind of fishes but I prefer Katla than anything else.

It doesn't matter whether its a vegetarian or non-vegetarian chop, it will have its own unique taste and equally tempting too. These serve as a great appetizer and a complete party pleaser. So, let's start with the recipe:

Katori Chaat.......A Bowlful of Flavors

These days monsoon is being enjoyed all over India and I'm no different. I just love the smell of first rain, get drenched in the rain showers, enjoy a cup of piping hot coffee in a rainy morning, eat Pakodas (fritters) along with your evening tea etc etc etc. 

For me monsoons and chaats are synonyms. I know we all love them at any time of the year or I would say any time of the day, but we also know that eating chaats in this weather is not good for our health as we can't see our food minus THE HYGIENE FACTOR. That's a big problem right?????

Don't worry I got you covered! You can enjoy your monsoon along with chaat and more importantly at the comfort of your home.

This time I'm sharing the recipe of "KATORI CHAAT". It's spicy, tangy, crunchy, crispy, sweet, sour all at the same time. A bite of this chaat gives you an explosion of flavors and you keep craving for more. This recipe is so eye catchy that it tantalizes your taste buds and you can't stay away from it for long. 

But yes, it requires some extra effort for making the Tamarind Chutney and Green chutney, if you already have them in your refrigerator then making this chaat is very easy. So let''s go ahead and look at its recipe:

Veg Manchurian

We both love Chinese food but we all know that Chinese cuisine varies according to the geographical regions. India has its own variety of Chinese cuisine known as Indo-Chinese. I have already posted a recipe from this cuisine: Chilli Chicken. You can have a look.

Few days back my Sister-In-Law came to our place with her cute kids. The kiddos asked me to make something from my blog (they consider my blog as their menu card :)) 
The younger one requested me to make Chilli Chicken but the elder one wouldn't like Chicken that much so I thought of making Veg Manchurian for her and Chilli Chicken for the younger. That way both were happy :)

Veg Manchurian is a very popular Indo-Chinese dish and a complete party pleaser. It can be served as an appetizer or as main course with fried rice. The veg balls or fritters are made up of chopped vegetables and then dipped in the sauce. It can be made in two ways: with or without gravy. We like the later one which is also known as Dry Veg Manchurian. (If you want the gravy version add vegetable broth to the sauce)

For the sauce I haven't used Ajinomoto as it has adverse effects on health so you can enjoy yummy Veg Manchurian without giving any second thought. So, here's the recipe:

Papdi Chaat

 

I'm a die hard fan of Indian Chaat or Indian Street Food and you? I know nobody can say "NO" to these mouth-watering dishes whether it's a child or an adult we all love them equally.  There are so many options in this genre, starting from Pani Puri, Bhel Puri, Dahi Puri, Vada Pav, Egg rolls, Chow mein, Dahi Vada to Papdi Chaat: we just love all of them. 

The exact place to enjoy the taste of any "Indian Street Food" is on the Indian Streets. But, sometimes the health conscious soul inside me wakes up and forces me not to have these roadside chaat and all those alluring foodstuffs and the little child inside me gets disappointed. So, in order to make that child happy the foodie inside me gets up and tries to recreate the taste of Indian Street Food in my very own kitchen but in a hygienic way. As a result me and my soul both are happy.

Yesterday, I had a very serious craving for some Papdi Chaat and as usual I was not in the favor of having it from the roadside shops. So, I decided to make it at my home. Making "Papdi Chaat" at home is very simple but you need to do some prior preparations like boiling chickpeas and potatoes etc. The crunch of the Papdis, the tanginess of the yogurt and the sweetness of the tamarind chutney is simply irresistible. 

I know this recipe will make you drool. So, without any further ado let's begin with our recipe:

Vegetable Chop (Vegetable Croquettes)...........A Winter Must-Have

            

There's no doubt that Kolkata is the hub of street foods. It is one of the friendliest cities for street food lovers. Vendors selling Fuchka (Pani Puri), Jhal Muri (spiced puffed rice), Bhel Puri, Ghugni Chaat, Chowmein, Egg Rolls (and the list goes on) can be found at every nooks and corners of the streets. 

Bengali's love to enjoy their evening tea with "Muri and Telebhaja" (Puffed rice with deep fries). These so called "Telebhaja" can be Aalur Chop (Potato Croquettes), Mochar Chop (Banana Blossom Croquettes), Dimer Chop (Egg Croquettes), Macher Chop (Fish Croquettes) etc....etc......

"Chop" is nothing but Cutlets or Croquettes. They are small, cylindrical shaped, stuffed with minced meat, mashed potatoes or mixed vegetables. They are then dipped into corn flour batter, rolled in breadcrumbs and then deeply fried. It doesn't matter whether it's vegetarian or non-vegetarian variety they all have different taste and equally tempting. They serve as a great appetizer and a complete party pleaser. 

Today I'm going to share Vegetable Chop which are stuffed with mixed vegetables and they pair well with tomato ketchup and finely chopped salad :)

Mochar Chop......Banana Blossom Croquette

We all are familiar with Banana: nature's own energy rich food but did you know you can eat its flower too? You might be wondering how, right? This question is very obvious for the one who hasn't tasted it. The flower of Banana is known as Mocha(in Bengali) or Banana Blossom(in English).

Mocha or Banana Blossom is used as a nutritious food item in Southeast Asia. It has a lot of medicinal values like blood purification, curing stomach ulcers, constipation, menstrual disorders etc. Since they are rich in fiber content they help in increasing the hemoglobin level of our blood.

Banana trees are very common in India and especially in West Bengal. We Bengalis utilize each and every part of Banana tree. The stem a.k.a "Thor", the leaves are used to serve food or used in wrapping and cooking, the flower a.k.a "Mocha" and of course the fruit "Banana". These trees also have religious values. They are used in pooja and wedding ceremonies.

Enough of rambling now coming back to our "Mochar Chop". 

Dahi Vada

The taste of Indian street food is so addictive that it's irresistible. It leaves your taste buds tingling even after the dish is finished. The spicy and tangy flavor of the food always ask you for "Thoda Aur"(little more). Dahi Vada or Dahi Bhalla is an Indian Chaat (snack) to be more precise a North Indian street food but now its taste has spread in the entire world and can be found easily in many Indian restaurants around the globe.

Dahi Vada is deep fried lentil dumplings made from Urad daal (split black gram), soaked in beaten yogurt and topped with flavored chutneys, spices and garnished with Sev or Boondi. It is making me drool even when I'm writing this post. It's taste is just inexplicable. So, without any further ado I'm sharing it's recipe: